| Helena
Ridge - 2862m/9390' |
Scrambling with Ian Cameron
Height gain: 1373m/4505'
Ascent date: Aug 19, 2005
Ascent time: 4:15hrs One way
Comment: Moderate scramble |
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Ian Cameron first suggested
to do Fable and Gap for this Friday's scramble. I thought, since
that he's willing to take 11 hours off his time, I talked him
into doing a 4-peak traverse in Banff instead.
This Banff trip was originally planned to scramble up Helena
Ridge, a traverse to Stuart
Knob, a traverse again to TV
Peak, then a traverse back to Castle Mountain. I chose to
do Castle Mountain last because Rockbound Lake trail would be
more appropriate to hike back to the car just in case we lose
the sunlight.
I prepared myself and encouraged Ian in the beginning of this
trip to focus on finishing four summits, but I was the one who
gave up. When I noticed Ian has been constantly waiting for
me at the summit (20 mins on TV Peak), I realized I didn't have
the energy anymore to continue. I've already used-up my last
breath summiting TV Peak but Ian still got a smile on his face.
I could charge this to Gap Mountain
I did the day before, or to :-)_. Whatever the case might be,
it's the reason why we didn't finish-up with Castle Mountain.
On this day we met a couple of scramblers. Chris, on our way
to TV Peak and Blair Armstrong, at the summit of Stuart Knob.
Blair scrambled up Stuart Knob... on flip-flops, and caught
up with us on TV Peak taking a different route... on flip-flops.
On our descent, the three of us took the alternate route and
Blair led us to some fine bushwacking... not on flip-flops :-(.
Our overall roundtrip took 12:45hrs.
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(1) This is looking back to Tower Lake, a part of an 8+km approach
to our first objective.
(2) We went around the right side of Rockbound Lake to gain
this gully to start the ascent, then followed the skyline
to the left. |
 
(1) This is Rockbound Lake and the north face of Castle Mountain.
(2) Here's when Ian boosted-up his energy and left me behind.
He went straight to the ridge and followed it to the summit.
I tried to zig-zag my way up directly to the summit to catch-up
with him but he's already finished his lunch when I got there. |
  (1)
4:15hrs up. The top has a complete 360 panorama with warm, full
sun and a gentle breeze.
We took a faster(?) and easier(?) way down to the west ridge
of Helena for our next target.
(2) Here's Ian traversing the ridge to Stuart
Knob leaving Helena. |
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